There's so much delicious material in Season Three to sink our teeth into. What stands out in particular are: the occupation of New Caprica, "A Measure of Salvation," "Dirty Hands," and Baltar's trial.
So let's just jump right in.
The Occupation of New Caprica
With the use of night-vision cameras by the baddies and Tigh's use of suicide bombers, there's a not-very-subtle comparison going on to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. It's undeniable that the writers were trying to tie it in with current events, and bravo. It's just that if you want to paint "Amerika" as the Cylons, then do your research; I'm pretty sure everybody down in Gitmo is as intact as they were when we captured them. If we actually did gouge out someone's eye, I'm amazed the media hasn't harped on it incessantly. Also, fundamental difference: Laura Roslin is not Sadaam Hussein. So yeah, I get the allegory. It just, you know, doesn't really hold up.
"A Measure of Salvation"
Please see the extremely long-winded review.
"Dirty Hands"
Well, yeah. The whole theme of the episode is "Woot! Union!" but to be fair, the only indication that there's any sort of economy anywhere is that we're three years in and Tigh and Starbuck can still find booze. Ain't nobody getting all the compensation they should be getting, but Roslin's plan to chain everyone to their job is frakking stupid. Just ask anyone who's ever made it 2/3rds of the way through Atlas Shrugged. Anyway, I'll give you this one just cuz. And do remember that I did actually like the episde.
Baltar's Trial
I was a tad frustrated that they didn't get Caprica-Six in to testify about the fact that Baltar's kind of the one responsible for all the exploding stuff in the Miniseries. But all they had to go on was a Cylon's word and one hallucination Roslin had, so that wasn't surprising; it probably wouldn't amount to much in a court of law. But then Romo and Lee pull out all the stops and get away with far too much in the cross-examination, so go figure.
Anyway, Baltar is on trial for collaborating with the Cylons at the point of a gun. Except, really, he was just a figurehead. The whole decision to try him for things that happened offscreen (see the commentary for "The Woman King" and various episodes after that) was pretty dumb in the first place, but then they replaced it by going after him with chargest that really, don't stick particularly well, especially after Roslin already offered a blanket pardon for all collaborators. Try him for leading the Cylons to the Algae planet!
"Collaborators"
Not really evidence for the prosecution, per se. Rather, what we see here is that Tigh et al have gone a tad off the deep end (and remember that they were the ones who used suicide bombers; not exactly the most ringing endorsement of that tactic).
Conclusion
Yeah, this is the most liberal season of the show's history. It's also, really, the only one.
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